Knowledgebase

PPTP (VPN) for Windows XP

To configure a new PPTP connection on Windows XP, open the Start menu, move on to Settings and click Control Panel. From within the Control Panel, chose Network and Internet Connections. After the connection wizard came up, click Next to select the connection type.

A so-called Connection to the network at my workplace is needed, since this implies the creation of a VPN connection. Click Next.

Choose Virtual Private Network connection. The already active Internet connection is used to establish a new one to proxy.sh. Click Next.

The Company Name can be set to anything meaningful to you, we suggest using proxy.sh, of course. Click Next.

The Host name you are connecting to is shown in your welcome email or in your panel's product details.

Have a shortcut to the newly configured connection being created on your desktop. After clicking Finish, you are done with the basic configuration.

You are now presented with a dialog window wanting you to enter your user credentials and to connect to proxy.sh. Do not try to connect yet. To reduce information leaks, you should consider tweaking this connection as described in the next section.

File and printer sharing should generally be disabled on any VPN connection. By disabling these protocols you prevent your machine from inadvertently leaking information to the Internet.

If you kept the dialog window Connect proxy.sh open, just click Properties for now.

In case you did create a connection shortcut on the desktop, you can now right click on it and chose Properties (otherwise it is reachable via Start menu/Settings/Control Panel/Network and Internet Connections).

Either way, a dialog box detailing the network connection's setup will be brought up.

In the General tab, verify that the proxy.sh PPTP IP is used as the host name. Click the Options tab.

Make sure that the Windows login domain is not included. The Redial attempts should be set to a very high number. Check Redial if line is dropped to have your machine always trying to reestablished failed connections. Switch to the Security tab.

Change the Security options to Advanced and click 'Settings' to edit these.

Data encryption should be set to Maximum strength encryption (disconnect if server declines). Further, connections to proxy.sh are only allowed to use Microsoft CHAP Version 2 (MS-CHAP v2) for authentication. Click OK to close the Advanced Security Settings and switch to the Networking tab.

Uncheck File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks as well as Client for Microsoft Networks from the list of used items. The Type of VPN needs to be set to PPTP VPN. Click Settings.

Inside the PPP Settings, it is important to have LCP extensions enabled and to have Software compression disabled. Close with OK and go on to the Advanced tab.

The most important settings here are those for the Windows Firewall. Get there.

The firewall should be turned on, but allow exceptions. Get to the Exceptions tab.

Uncheck all currently available exceptions. You might want to open the firewall later for certain programs that need to have communication directly with your machine. Now change to the Advanced tab.

Make sure that the VPN connection is checked, so the firewall is active for it. Close this dialog window by clicking OK.

Now it is time to bring up your newly created network connection. Back in the Connect proxy.sh dialog window, enter your VPN credentials and click Connect.

After connecting to proxy.sh and registering your machine to the network, a yellow bubble shows up right above the network tray icon. Close this bubble. You are now all set up. Enjoy!

NB: If you encounter difficulties to connect with PPTP, please try to
switch to OpenVPN. OpenVPN is more reliable, more secure and more
flexible. OpenVPN also allows you to try various ports, including
'discreet' ones such as TCP 443. Below, you will find an aggregate of
useful guides and articles that will help you troubleshoot your
problems, should you have any.

If
you still cannot connect successfully, please open a support ticket and
include either a copy of your logs or a screenshot of your
configuration and encountered errors. Logs can usually be found in
software menus or settings, as well as their directories of installation
(.log or .txt files). If you do not include a log or a screenshot, it
will be hard for us to help you resolve the issues you have with
connecting to our network.